According to the White House’s “State of the Union Message Points,” the President is going to lay out a “blueprint” for the second term. But here’s the problem. The bad policy choices the President made in the first term — irresponsible tax cuts, the mismanaged war in Iraq, billions sunk into an ineffective Medicare bill — are going to severely limit his policy options in the second term, whether he realizes it or not.

Here’s why. This President has the worst fiscal record of any President in the history of our country. Period. He has presided over a ten trillion dollar swing from record surpluses to record deficits. The President may try and gloss over his reckless record of deficit spending tonight. But when you are talking fiscal policy, fundamentals matter and there are some facts even this Administration can’t dismiss. The US dollar is on shaky ground. To paraphrase Tennessee Ernie Ford (I’m showing my age): another day older another billion in debt. Over 90 percent of the increase in the debt under Bush has been bought up by foreigners.

He may lay out what sounds like a bold agenda, but he is going to have a hard time marshalling any of the resources to get it accomplished.

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